


Where flowers bloom, so does hope.

by cupidmin



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Boys in Skirts, Falling In Love, First Meetings, Fluff, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Soft Mark Lee (NCT), Strangers to Lovers, also donghyuck wears dresses bc fuck gender stereotypes yk, donghyuck calls mark flower boy, donghyuck is a customer, except its kinda a 4+ 1 au oops lmao, mark is a flower boy with no knowledge of flowers, slight implied panic attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:53:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28247943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupidmin/pseuds/cupidmin
Summary: "If you were a flower you'd be a damnnndelion.""...""Mark stop trying to kick me out of this shop!"Or, The four times Donghyuck gives flowers to Mark, plus the one time Mark gives him a flower back.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 11
Kudos: 149





	Where flowers bloom, so does hope.

**Author's Note:**

> BCMXBVKDBCJ hi so this isn't a proper 4+ 1 au but ig it works so bdkcndlsk ok enjoy the fic !! :DDD

1.

Mark would say working at his brother’s flower shop is tedious. Sitting in the same register for hours can get burdensome, and sometimes even the colorful shades that paint the sky in the evening don't make up for it. However, the shop doesn't require him to do much, and it's not like he has to do something he extremely dislikes. The shop itself is chill, the flowers embellish the room beautifully, and although they don’t have many customers, they do have loyal ones. In the end, Mark has too much time on his hands, and he thinks Taeyong’s ‘no wasting time during work hours’ is the stupidest rule ever. (Well Taeyong is barely in the shop, but who knows how many secret cameras he’s got hidden around.)

He’s also one to never miss his breaks, but he supposes this time it can be an exception.

It is a few minutes before his break when the dainty boy comes in. He’s dressed in a huge baby blue sweatshirt that gives him sweater paws and a pair of some light mom jeans, but what Mark finds intriguing is a small piece of paper the boy is clenching in his hands. Holding back a smile, he assumes the boy is here because his guardian parent sent him, which also explains why the boy has his head tilted down shyly.

“Uh, Do you guys have white camellia’s?” The stranger's voice is feeble, breaking the weird silence that lingers around. He has his bottom lip between his teeth, and Mark quickly looks away when he finds himself staring. 

Mark has a tight lipped smile on his face, but he wants to grimace when he realizes the flowers are the same ones that he broke the pot of just a few days back, and they’re all covered in moist soil that will most likely take him a while to clean. 

“Yes, we do! How many would you like?” Mark replies easily, shifting his weight from one foot to another as the boy rolls his eyes up to think for a brief second. 

_ please say one. please say one. please say on- _

“About 5 of them, please!” The boy nods to himself, like he’s content with the answer. Mark glances at the small clock that’s placed on the register, seeing it flash a bright ‘5:58 PM’. There’s two minutes till his break. 

_ fuuuuuuuuc- _

“They're stored in the back, I’ll be right back with them. Please wait for a few minutes!” The boy nods cordially. Mark can't take his eyes off the way the boy's chestnut colored hair bounces against his forehead. It makes him want to run a hand through them. He then ambles towards the stockroom with pale crimson dusted over his cheeks.

In the end, it takes him six minutes to clean them, and he’s missed almost half of his break by the time the boy leaves. Mark treasures his breaks, but he deems this one time to be an exception as he hands the boy his much required flowers. The flowers are gorgeous, but the smile he gets in return puts the flowers to shame.

And  _ oh. _ The last thing he expects to see is a single white camellia placed on the counter right after the boy leaves.

  
  
  
  
  





‘This one time’ turns into an understatement as the boy– or, Donghyuck, Mark learns, comes in every other day, right before his break. After some attempted small talk, Mark finds out that Donghyuck is just a year younger, and that the boy is the utmost embodiment of the sun. Donghyuck buys the same white flowers from him every time, and leaves one on his desk everytime. Mark wonders why he does that.

“Just out of curiosity, who do you give these flowers to?” Mark asks, handing the same white camellias to Donghyuck. He'd say they're friends now, or atleast close to–although that title doesn’t explain why his heart starts beating quickly everytime Donghyuck comes over. Like an untold rule; something that doesn’t need to be told verbally to be understood, Mark never asks Donghyuck about the flowers he leaves behind. He wants to, but he knows in the end, he'd still appreciate them the same. If the latter wanted to tell him, then he’d do just that. Mark is not a pushy person, however he is inquisitive.

Donghyuck’s eyes shine at his question. “To strangers, Mark.” He says, before waving him goodbye and walking out of the door. Mark watches him go; He is beyond confused. 

On his desk sits another white camellia. Mark grasps it’s stem in his hand and brings it to his nose. It has a meagre scent to it. The flower reminds him of when he first moved to Korea: just fresh and pristine in a tender approach. It reminds him of Donghyuck, coming in his life unexpectedly and bringing him solicitous emotions that he's never felt before. He sets the flower down on top of his books that help him pass time. There’s more flowers placed by it, they’re all camellias. His eyes catch a withering one; it’s dying. It’s turned into a pecan shade, it’s petals curling onto itself melancholically.

He wonders if he’s the stranger Donghyuck was talking about. 

  
  
  
  





For someone that works at a flower shop, Mark surely has zero clue about flowers. He can tell them apart, all courtesy of when Taeyong shoved a book of ‘flowers and their names’ right in his face and made him by-heart it, but the book never showed meanings, so, when an old lady comes into his shop, and tells him to get a flower that symbolizes remembrance, Mark kindly tells her that he’d require a name for the flower instead. The old lady then yells at him with her cracking voice, and Mark just smiles and nods and she insults him with ten different synonyms that bring his mood down with every syllable.

They’re Rosemary’s. Mark knows when he searches it up on his phone with shaky hands as the lady throws daggers at him with her gaze. He hands a bunch to her hastily, and she struts out of the shop like she didn’t just throw a useless fit at a poor worker. 

He slumps down on the chair behind him and swallows down the feeling of nausea. He thinks there’s nothing that can make his day better.

There is. 

Donghyuck enters the shop in his glory fifteen minutes later, and Mark hopes the reason why he feels jittery is because of his panicked state, and not because of the joy he gets at the sight of Donghyuck. 

The boy is dressed like the sun, Mark realizes. Donghyuck is adorned in a flowy mellow dress that ends mid-thigh, and it has small yellow flowers printed on it. He has tiny, white bead bracelets on each of his hands; his fingers look empty, Mark wishes to hold them. Donghyuck glows like the sun, and Mark is the sunflower that can’t help but be attracted to him. 

_ (SIMP! _ a voice in the back of his mind yells. He agrees.)

“Are you okay?” Donghyuck’s voice is laced with concern, and when Mark meets Donghyuck’s gaze he feels something tug his heart. Still, he tilts his head in confusion. 

“You’re sweating, dumbass.” Donghyuck points to his forehead with his lanky finger, and then plucks out a tissue from the tissue box that sits on the counter. The latter extends his hand towards him, offering it.

Mark takes one glance at the tissue before looking down. “Yeah, I just had a bad day.” He grabs the tissue before laying it flat against his forehead, patting it down with his palm. Donghyuck scrunches nose, making a face. Mark finds it cute.

“You’re weird.” Donghyuck voices and Mark snickers. “Is my presence perhaps making your day worse, Flower boy?” 

“No!” Mark shakes his head instantly before his movements dwindle down. Damn him. “N-no.” He says slowly with his head down, gripping the end of his tee with his fingers as they turn white.

“No?” Donghyuck sounds like he’s trying to hold back a laugh, and that is proved correct when Mark looks at him again, greeted with the sight of Donghyuck with his lips pressed together. 

“You’re mean.” Mark shoves the latter's shoulder, and the laugh Donghyuck emits after that sounds like heaven to his ears. It feels warm; it feels like something he wishes he had forever. He wishes to hear it every morning, throughout the day, and before he drifts into his sleep.

“You’re here for your regular order, right?” He watches as Donghyuck raises his right eyebrow.

“Regular, Huh?” Mark flushes a rubescent color, Donghyuck smiles. “And yeah, my regular order, but change it to four white, and five pink camellias.”

Mark doesn’t question it. 

(When he hands them back, Donghyuck asks him, “do you know what every flower symbolizes?” Mark laughs, dryly, then answers no. "Oh." Donghyuck says, disappointment evident in the way he speaks. Mark doesn't get to dwell on it enough, because sitting on the counter is a pink camellia. He wants to know what it means.)

4.

Mark has a plan. 

Well, He has a plan that's been ready for weeks, and now it's on the brink of withering under his desk. 

Withering; like his hope, like his confidence.

It doesn't take him much to realize that he harbours strong feelings for Donghyuck. So, one day, he sat his ass down and researched about flowers and their meanings, and now he feels smarter than ever. However, It’s been weeks since he last saw Donghyuck. He’s worried, since Donghyuck never told him that he wouldn't come and he feels his heart clench everytime he sees the bunch of flowers sitting under the counter, waiting to be given to someone. 

White Camellias, the first flowers that Donghyuck had left for him. They symbolize admiration.

Pink Camellias, the second ones that Donghyuck would always leave. They symbolize longing, especially for someone. 

Mark doesn't know what they mean. Okay, he knows what they symbolize, but he doesn't know what it means when Donghyuck gives him one of those.Thinking about it beckons him back to all the memories where Donghyuck would gaze into his eyes, searching for something that Mark wasn't aware of, but looking into Donghyuck's eyes was enough, it brought him tranquility. Then, Donghyuck would break the fervent eye contact, his sigh filtering through the quiet shop. Donhyuck would give him a knowing smile that only Mark could decipher. He'd leave the shop after that, and like always, Mark would find a flower sitting on top of the register. 

Mark thinks it's his turn to give a flower. 

Red tulips; the flowers that sit under the register. Red tulips symbolize romance, or the declaration of love. 

He wishes to give them to the boy he's grown to love, He wishes to give them to Donghyuck.

Lost in a reverie, Mark jumps on his seat when the shop's door is smacked open, and in runs Donghyuck. 

He looks like he's in a hurry; His hair is in a mess that Mark desperately wants to run his hands into, he's dressed in a weird combo of a green olive colored tennis skirt and a crinkled blue graphic tee that only he could look so good in, and if the way Donghyuck has his hands on his knees as his chest moves up and down rapidly doesn't prove that he's in a hurry, then the way he all but yells "Mark! please get me my regular order! quickly!" is enough to prove it.

He grabs the flowers hastily, and Donghyuck smacks a pink camellia with a note of money on the countertop before quickly running out of the shop. 

Only when he's out does Mark realize that he forgot to give Donghyuck the red tulips.

Well, at least he got a camellia, He thinks. He brings it near his nose, the scent fills his senses and makes him forget the dull ache in the bottom of his heart. 

+1.

Exactly a week later, Donghyuck returns with a sorry expression on his face. Mark might feel somewhat dejected over Donghyuck's absence, but the latter explains how he was super busy, and then proceeds to hold his own hand in plea with a look that makes Mark want to kiss Donghyuck. His hands feel benign and tingle warmly when they hold Donghyuck’s. He thinks it's alright to forgive the younger. 

Donghyuck still gets the same order as always, and when he's about to pay for them, Mark remembers the flowers that he wanted to give. They're the only bunch left, and Mark hasn't glanced at them in the past week as they remind him of feelings he doesn't want to remember. He isn't even sure if they're still presentable or not, but he thinks, ' _ fuck it.'  _ and grabs the tulips in his hand and shoves them towards Donghyuck. After all it's the thought that matters. 

Donghyuck stares at them with an unreadable expression on his face before glancing up at him. Sure the tulips have withered to a rather brown color near the ends, but they aren't completely ruined. 

"These are so ugly, Markie. Couldn't you have given me more fresher ones?" Mark groans with cherry tinted cheeks, shaking the flowers in his hand as if telling Donghyuck to just accept them.

"Just take them, you ungrateful ass." Donghyuck smiles like he's been given the seven wonders, and then takes them gleefully. 

"Thank you, Flower boy!" He chirps, and Mark waves him goodbye. He wonders if Donghyuck is just painfully oblivious and doesn't know what red tulips mean, or if this is his way of rejecting someone: by not acknowledging them at all. 

Mark's eyes trail behind Donghyuck's retreating figure as he leaves the shop. He feels emotionless; it's better than the grievous feeling of being rejected. His hand falls limp on his side when Donghyuck's figure disappears out of his view.

When Mark goes back to his desk, he sees a different flower on it.

  
  


A red Chrysanthemum. It means  _ I Love you.  _

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> sbdndn I hope you guys enjoyed that um I'm not sure if I'll make a sequel for this but if you guys wanna see one then lmk what you want to see in it !! 
> 
> that's all for now, thank you for your time ^^ follow me on[ twitter](https://twitter.com/bbsungies?s=09) and leave a comment or kudo if you enjoyed this if you wanna :D
> 
> thank you, have a great day/ night !! 🌱


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